Another thing: I didn't know Larry King still had it; the man can do a pretty damn good interview.

And no matter what you feel about Savage, he's interesting --both here and on radio.

*Rusty Simmons, the suspended Chronicle beat reporter who covers the Warriors, is back on the job; I'm still floored by the lack of coverage here, thank god for CJR and Deadspin.

*It would have been nice to know about the Chronicle internal investigation of the Simmons matter, but the Chronicle's pompous, insipid, alleged, EIC, Audrey Cooper is too full of herself to inform readers about what's going on. She's perfect for the Chronicle.

*The layoffs at CBS Radio which will affect the entire division (including KCBS) start in earnest next month.

*Even if Michael Krasny tries to bury past "issues" with former fill-in host of KQED 'Forum', it's not going away.

17 comments:

any pending layoffs at Alice? Also, re chronicle. they cancelled our sunday paper without notifying us that the chron no longer delivers to sonoma county. they had shitty service anyway. i know, who reads the actual paper, but sometimes the ritual is nice on a sunday.

This morning I was watching KPIX morning news and they aired a promo about an investigative report on whether all the small cell stations popping up all over SF and across the country pose a cancer risk. They aired some comments from some SF resident who was concerned. The problem is even the American Cancer Society states the following re: exposure living to full size cell towers: Public exposure to radio waves from cell phone tower antennas is slight for several reasons. The power levels are relatively low, the antennas are mounted high above ground level, and the signals are transmitted intermittently, rather than constantly.

At ground level near typical cellular base stations, the amount of RF energy is thousands of times less than the limits for safe exposure set by the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and other regulatory authorities. It is very unlikely that a person could be exposed to RF levels in excess of these limits just by being near a cell phone tower.

And this is big cell tower, not the little small cell boxes going up on phone poles. Sounds like a scare tactic story to me like the link of innoculations to autism.

I used to work in the cellular industry mfgr, but no longer. This smelled very fishy to me.

Little off topic, but Sat MO2, Kafton was interviewing a child, who at first glance looked like a young girl, at some science fair live, and he throws it back to the station, and Wong begins announce how nice it is to see this nice little girl was so great to be interested in the science project blah blah blah....then Kafton tries to break in, finally does and identifies the "young girl" as Theodore. One would think there would have been a little more communication. Ho Lee Fuk

Meanwhile, in Missouri, we have Assistant Professor of Communications, Melissa Click playing the part of an activist: “Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here.”

I read the NY Times story and the professor and student protesters seem very confused about the role of journalism and social protesting. I always thought one of the main objectives of public protesting was to bring greater awareness to a perceived injustice. Do they think we'd be as far socially if MLK Jr. eschewed the press in his quest for civil rights?

If you talk to anyone in the Chronicle newsroom, and they're candid, they'll tell you that Audrey is in way over her head. But she has a pretty face and can dress as a business professional, and so that counts for something I guess. In story meetings you get a sense of how shallow she is ... she doesn't have the background to understand complex stories and she asks questions that suggest she doesn't read her own paper (or anything else). She seldom challenges writers to do better work. With mediocre leadership, you're going to get a mediocre product. Quite a contrast to the Bronstein era.

RE: Chron. I was reading a good feature story on a website about SF housing issues, displacement, etc, and I suddenly realized that the Chron has become actually irrelevant in the last few years. A decade ago, the piece I was reading would have gotten the writer hired by the Chronicle or the Merc, and deservedly; nowadays, there is no way she would take a job at the Chron; it's no longer a primary player in local issues. That's amazing. I wonder how many major metro dailies are in that position?

As far as Simmons goes, I think they should've fired him, but really, who cares?

And what exactly is the Michael Krasny Kerfuffle? I haven't heard this rumor at all...